Free Republic

All “registered owners” of vehicles weighing more than 26,000 GVW have received this letter over the past couple weeks. This edict, only applies to diesel powered vehicles used as a function of business. Privately used vehicles are exempt, at this time. Compliance is very expensive, Diesel Particulate Filters, start around $10,000.00 per vehicle. New vehicles are as high as, $140,000.00. This is an enormous expense to California business owners, which obviously will be passed on. California business also has to comply with a carbon credit scam and undoubtedly, the future recension of Prop 13 protection of commercial property. There are...

Navistar International Corp. (NAV) plans to close its Garland, Texas, assembly plant, as the embattled truck maker shrinks it manufacturing capacity in response to falling demand for commercial trucks. The plant near Dallas employs about 900 workers and has been Navistar's primary site for assembling heavy-duty trucks in recent years. The company intends to cease operations at Garland during first half of next year. Closing Garland is expected to lower Navistar's costs by increasing the utilization of other plants. SNIP Navistar, which also makes military trucks and school buses, has lost $241 million during the first nine months of its...

For the first time since the United States entered a deep recession five years ago, 70% of Americans now say they believe global warming is a reality, according to researchers. In a report released Thursday by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, authors wrote that America’s concern about global warming is now at its highest level since 2008, and that 58% of Americans expressed worries about it.

In the fall of 2010, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. — the state's "corporate welfare” arm — uploaded a video to YouTube highlighting the battery manufacturer A123 Systems. At the time, the company was promoted heavily by President Barack Obama, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow. Since then, A123 has shed money, laid off half its workforce, recalled products and seen its stock price plummet to about 26 cents this week from a previous high of $26. Now, just two years after the initial roll-out, A123 is...

Obama: Green energy not ‘socialist plot’ By Ben Geman - 10/08/12 09:59 AM ET President Obama quipped Sunday night that energy efficiency initiatives are not a “socialist plot” in remarks that contrasted his energy policies with rival Mitt Romney’s. The president, fundraising in Los Angeles, addressed energy during a $25,000-per-plate dinner with backers that included actor George Clooney. “On energy, I’m big on oil and gas, and developing clean coal technology, but I also believe that if we’re ever going to have control of our energy future, then we’ve got to invest in solar and wind and biofuels, and that...

Michigan would have 10,540 fewer jobs in 2025 if Proposal 3 passes in November, according to a new study on the renewable energy mandate proposal. The study, done by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Beacon Hill Institute in Massachusetts, also concluded that Prop 3 would lower disposable income in Michigan by $1.42 billion; reduce net investment in the state by $147 million and impose net costs on the Michigan economy of $2.55 billion. "Our study also indicates that even if voters reject Proposal 3, Michigan residents will still bear some of these costs," David Tuerck, one of...

(SNIP) "Promised Land," starring Matt Damon, Frances McDormand, John Krasinski, Rosemarie DeWitt and Hal Holbrook, is the fracking (anti-fracking?) movie shot in Western Pennsylvania earlier this year. In an interview in June after shooting finished, Krasinski told the Post-Gazette the film is about fighting for American identity and pride and the original script was about wind power, later changed. (END SNIP)

Extraordinarily smart people at the California Air Resources Board have taken to using the term "leakage" as they go about devising the experimental cap and trade system for reducing greenhouse gases. Homer Perez, head boiler mechanic at Pacific Coast Producers' tomato cannery off East Main Street in Woodland, might use a word that is more familiar to the rest of us: "layoff." The cannery has been operating under one owner or another since the 1920s. A cooperative of 16 growers in Yolo, Solano and Sutter counties owns it now. Perez has worked there for 28 of the past 29 years....

Former Evergreen Solar CEO Richard Feldt’s five-bedroom, two-plus acre Hingham pad is on the market for $9.9 million, nearly $1.4 million more than what the company’s Devens factory sold for earlier this year. The Bare Cove Lane property also boasts four bathrooms, a pool, stone terrace and 200 feet of frontage on Hingham Harbor, according to a real estate listing. “The natural light is incredible. The views are spectacular. The finishes and millwork are masterful,” the listing says. “Rarely does a home of this caliber become available for sale.” Feldt, who left Evergreen Solar in 2010 to become CEO of...

Two environmental groups in April filed suit to block an energy project they said would seriously harm the local ecosystem. It wasn't a coal plant, or an oil refinery, or a nuclear reactor. It was a wind farm — the very sort of "clean" energy environmentalists champion as an alternative to dirty traditional supplies. But the Portland Audubon Society and Oregon Natural Desert Association say a wind farm on Oregon's Steens Mountain, along with needed access roads and transmission lines, would threaten eagles, sage grouse and bighorn sheep and call it the "antithesis" of "responsible renewable energy development." Also in...

Full Title:**********************$1.3 billion in ‘clean energy’ subsidies produce 288 permanent jobs, quadruple cost of electricity in Nevada Reid-sponsored National Clean Energy Summit pushes more subsidies as key to Nevada’s futureLAS VEGAS — As U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid prepares to host his fifth annual National Clean Energy Summit on Aug. 7, a Nevada Journal examination of Nevada’s renewable energy sector shows that over $1.3 billion in federal funds funneled into geothermal, solar and wind projects since 2009 has yielded and is projected to yield just 288 permanent, full-time jobs. That’s an initial cost of over $4.6 million per job.Despite...

Across the country, cities are joining the latest environmental trend – banning plastic grocery bags. Concerned about the amount of plastic that reaches our oceans and the impact on wildlife, communities have decided that banning the bags is a simple and environmentally responsible approach. But is it? What does the science say? The evidence points to the fact that banning the bags may actually be a net negative for the environment, yielding little benefit to wildlife while significantly increasing carbon emissions and other environmental impacts. Advocates of banning plastic grocery bags often cite impacts on marine life and mammals, but...

Facing declining demand for electricity and stiff federal environmental regulations, coal plant operators are planning to retire 175 coal-fired generators, or 8.5 percent of the total coal-fired capacity in the United States, according to an analysis by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). A record-high 57 generators will shut down in 2012, representing 9 gigawatts of electrical capacity, according to EIA. In 2015, nearly 10 gigawatts of capacity from 61 coal-fired generators will be retired. While many of those coal plants are old and relatively inefficient, the scope of this new planned shutdown is unprecedented. “The coal-fired capacity expected to be...

Another undercover operation by Project Veritas, which is led by investigative video specialist James O'Keefe, has revealed what labor unions truly believe about the billions of dollars that go toward the alleged "greening" of our energy usage.They're "bull****" http://www.theprojectveritas.org/node/138Those were the words that came out of the mouth of John Hutchings, a legislator for New York's Broome County, who is also a construction market representative for the Laborers International Union for upstate New York. He is also an executive officer of the Central New York Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, according to his bio....Project Veritas actors, who portrayed leaders of a make-believe...

Energy-efficient CFL bulbs cause skin damage, say researchers 8:52 AM 07/23/2012 ADVERTISEMENT New research funded by the National Science Foundation has scientists warning consumers about the potentially harmful effects energy-saving CFL light bulbs can have on skin. The warning comes based on a study conducted by Stony Brook University and New York State Stem Cell Science — published in the June issue of Photochemistry and Photobiology — which looked at whether and how the invisible UV rays CFL bulbs emit affect the skin. Based on the research, scientists concluded that CFL light bulbs can be harmful to healthy skin cells....

Americans are the the least likely to suffer from "green guilt" about their environmental impact, despite trailing the rest of the world in sustainable behavior, according to a new National Geographic survey. This year's Greendex report, conducted by the National Geographic Society and the research consultancy GlobeScan, also found that Americans are the most confident that their individual actions can help the environment. (National Geographic News is a division of the Society.) (How green are you? Find out with the Greendex calculator.) "There's a disconnect there, and we hope the Greendex helps shed light on it," said Eric Whan, GlobeScan's...

One of President Obama’s radical eco-bureaucrats has apologized for confirming an indelible truth: This White House treats politically incorrect private industries as public enemies who deserve regulatory death sentences. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Al Armendariz, an avowed greenie on leave from Southern Methodist University, gave a little-noticed speech in 2010 outlining his sadistic philosophy. “I was in a meeting once, and I gave an analogy to my staff about my philosophy of enforcement, and I think it was probably a little crude and maybe not appropriate for the meeting, but I’ll go ahead and tell you what I said,” he...

CONCORD, Mass. -- Concord became the first town in the country to ban the sale of single-serving PET bottled water on Wednesday night, our news partner Wicked Local/Concord reported. After close to two hours of debate, Warrant Article 32, the Drinking Water in Single-Serving PET Bottles Bylaw, narrowly passed by 39 votes during Wednesday’s session of Town Meeting. The official teller count showed 403 voting in favor, and 364 opposed. The bottled water bylaw passed at this year’s Town Meeting bans the sale of non-sparkling, unflavored drinking water in single-serving polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles of 1 liter (34 ounces) or...

Last week, "an unelected group of people" over at the Environmental Protection Agency revised our national energy policy, approving a new gasoline blend with up to 15% ethanol, known as E15, which may be available in pumps this summer. Currently, most gasoline sold in the U.S. is E10, containing a maximum of 10% ethanol. To review the backstory: the last time ethanol was in the news, it seems like its opponents, who come from both the environmental left and free-market right, had won a significant victory. Last summer, "a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress," to use Obama's words...

Before I read the two reviews of this animated feature this morning, I had said to myself over the past few weeks: "Pharmboy, this movie must really be awful since you cannot look anywhere without seeing some sort of promotion for it. A cry for help if I've ever seen one."Well, it appears even worse than that. I read two reviews (The New York Times and the New York Post) and both HATED this dreck, and each said that the absolute preachiness was worse than Al Gore and Obama, respectively. You know what to expect: bad corporations raping the environment....